[{"line":"If you ever heard five hundred North Georgia women in full-throated glory, ","italic":"0"},{"line":"that sound was meant for you, ","italic":"0"},{"line":"you would know how God sometimes \/ Will call a brother out of the terrible fields,","italic":"0"},{"line":"Would you?","italic":"0"},{"line":"Though your ankles are weak \/\/ We climbed the steep cliff to the main attraction. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"I write you parenting anyhow from Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, which is patently half as you know under water;","italic":"0"},{"line":"if you are waiting to cross \/ The tracks, wait to do it for one moment at \/ Least after the first train is gone. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"And so when you read \/ Wait until you have read the next line--","italic":"0"},{"line":"So, when you are courting, it's best to have them all in view","italic":"0"},{"line":"you may love another. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"you are a woman, whom you have been waiting to love. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"if you escape the first one you're not necessarily safe;","italic":"0"},{"line":"As when \"I love you\" suddenly rings false","italic":"0"},{"line":"When you come to something, stop to let it pass","italic":"0"},{"line":"you can see what else is there. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"You think, Now it is safe to cross and you are hit by the next one. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"you sit at the foot of a tree","italic":"0"},{"line":"when you get up to leave there is another \/ Whom you'd have preferred to talk to all along. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"In today's mail I found the chain letter you've been sending for years. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"I know your handwriting, your desperation, the particular way in which you fold the paper. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"This plea, you tell me, has been around the world three, maybe four times. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"I can see you waiting","italic":"0"},{"line":"the one you designed for me","italic":"0"},{"line":"One summer, you say, a Portuguese fisherman received this letter and burned it. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"You must copy the entire letter, you said. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"The copies you make, the warning continued, must be indistinguishable from the source. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"I learned from you. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"On the coast of Portugal they began a tradition, you say. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"It's really a mockery of belief, you say. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"you don't have to","italic":"0"},{"line":"Because what part of this last do you not understand, ","italic":"0"},{"line":"when even your shrink...","italic":"0"},{"line":"you, light of my life,","italic":"0"},{"line":"\"Your silence hurt me,\"","italic":"0"},{"line":"Rather, \"When you said nothing I felt hurt.\"","italic":"0"},{"line":"I burned with SHAME for the years \/ You'd spent among sufferings uncharted--","italic":"0"},{"line":"Not even my barren love to rest your head on.","italic":"0"},{"line":"Just now, when you lashed out, ","italic":"0"},{"line":"You and I stood flanking the blackboard,","italic":"0"},{"line":"yet the only \/ Child each had become trembled for you","italic":"0"},{"line":"\"Close your eyes now. You \/ Are standing,\"","italic":"0"},{"line":"The walls, as you walk through, \/ Are hung with images:","italic":"0"},{"line":"you loved that year, ","italic":"0"},{"line":"And suddenly you're here, ","italic":"0"},{"line":"The GUILT you felt, \/ Adding it all the same to your master list!","italic":"0"},{"line":"We bring you now","italic":"0"},{"line":"Is this you--smiling helplessly?","italic":"0"},{"line":"Pinned to your chest \/ A sign: Confront Me If I Take Control.","italic":"0"},{"line":"Plus you must wear (till sundown) a black eyeshade.","italic":"0"},{"line":"All day you've been the littlest, the clumsiest. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"Speak, \/ as far as you can trust, the words of healing. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"Take off your mask, ","italic":"0"},{"line":"Your pardon for my own blindness I ask; ","italic":"0"},{"line":"Your pardon for my own blindness I ask; ","italic":"0"},{"line":"You mine, for all you hid from me. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"This once, no one will chide you. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"I leave tomorrow, so you get a pass. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"You are a brave and special person. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"since you obviously \/\/ Made the effort","italic":"0"},{"line":"we have shown you just how much \/ You have in common with everybody else. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"Not to be \"terminally unique\" \/ Will the consolation you take home.","italic":"0"},{"line":"Remember, Oracle is only the first step \/ Of your recovery. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"The rest is up to you \/ And the twelve-step program you become","italic":"0"},{"line":"you must don't like my peaches","italic":"0"},{"line":"you've had my thrills","italic":"0"},{"line":"soon no memory of you","italic":"0"},{"line":"you flutter invisible still","italic":"0"},{"line":"your heart beats me \/ as I lie naked on the grass","italic":"0"},{"line":"how would you know \/ if you've never tasted ","italic":"0"},{"line":"raise your window high \/ the carpenter's here \/ with hammer and nail","italic":"0"},{"line":"think your shit don't stink","italic":"0"},{"line":"You have seen them, surely, busy paring \/ the world down to what it is mostly, \/\/ proverbs: ","italic":"0"},{"line":"your ear where it \/\/ finds it, ","italic":"0"},{"line":"would you rather eat a bucket of shit \/ or drink a bucket of piss?","italic":"0"},{"line":"\"maybe we'll make you do both,\" \/ they told me. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"I said, \"you and whose \/ army?\" ","italic":"0"},{"line":"The letter said you had to speak to me. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"Please, if you love me,","italic":"0"},{"line":"I never meant to hurt you like I did. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"I never hurt you. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"nothing around me but a fever of clues \/ of what it was you wanted me to do. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"To hear within its Thou Shalt Not a \"Shall\" \/ and follow you into a lower hell?","italic":"0"},{"line":"As if they could be words, and those words yours,","italic":"0"},{"line":"Cauled in my own blood, mute and lame and free \/ of everything obstructing you from me,","italic":"0"},{"line":"I saw your face above me leaning down. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"There's nothing here for you, you said, go home. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"It's for your own good, child, believe me, and","italic":"0"},{"line":"I vanished, waking, as you turned around. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"You were too narrow, \/ Too much in the shade already. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"You had only one dog, \/ One lone child. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"You hid your biggest mirror, \/ Your undressed lovers. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"though others run \/ down your windshield","italic":"0"},{"line":"or those dull flakes \/ littering your shoulder. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"The horizon, a maternal flour sifter, \/ Sprinkled your landscape; ","italic":"0"},{"line":"light winds lifted \/ Powdered sugar in your bowl;","italic":"0"},{"line":"the drifting \/ Snow, white tissue paper for your gifts. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"\"you little prick!\" my father said","italic":"0"},{"line":"\"you stay out of this!\"","italic":"0"},{"line":"\"don't you hit my boy!\" my mother \/ screamed.","italic":"0"},{"line":"Leaving the snow \/ bank, your boot leaves \/ a fossil print--","italic":"0"},{"line":"Just so, \/ across the field you've made \/ a trail of absences. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"as a clean sheet smooths \/ your shape out of the bed \/ you don't go back to. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"You are the missing \/ tooth","italic":"0"},{"line":"and you will discover \/ How unworthy you are as you describe what you see, ","italic":"0"},{"line":"you dead of AIDS twenty years later, ","italic":"0"},{"line":"You taught me all the good, hard words for sex ","italic":"0"},{"line":"Your mother has just described you \/ to me as a beautiful corpse, your eyes half-closed,","italic":"0"},{"line":"I see you clearly, \/ a distracted hand racked back through your hair, ","italic":"0"},{"line":"Without you, who remembers me? ","italic":"0"},{"line":"The grey and red bracelets \/ placed on you by the hospital staff ","italic":"0"},{"line":"your thin arm, I've been told, bruised back \/ by injections. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"Your body, the instrument \/ you had once lived through","italic":"0"},{"line":"you lifted yourself \/ higher onto your pillows to take your breath, ","italic":"0"},{"line":"a patch of white gauze across your heart","italic":"0"},{"line":"your old jazz-bar pallor \/ turned reckless. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"The day you died, a south wind \/ blew flowers into my room. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"What if I could bring you back, I at last \/ the only one you acknowledged loving? ","italic":"0"},{"line":"You have been taken, \/ I think","italic":"0"},{"line":"then I grieve for you. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"either mine or yours, was not the sign \/ of what was to come, ","italic":"0"},{"line":"and if you'd care \/ to join us we'd be most honored. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"However, I understand \/ you have your obligations and responsibilities, ","italic":"0"},{"line":"and if you would prefer to simply visit with us \/ from time to time, ","italic":"0"},{"line":"if, due to your heavy load, \/ we are altogether deprived of the pleasure \/ of exchanging a few anecdotes, ","italic":"0"},{"line":"you in your bughouse, \/ if you'll pardon my vernacular, ","italic":"0"},{"line":"if you could find the time to join us after your injections.","italic":"0"},{"line":"My less erotic god condemned \/ my taste for girls less classical \/ than you, ","italic":"0"},{"line":"but bear \/ in mind your lower half that gropes \/ for water","italic":"0"},{"line":"the slender roots you spread \/ in secret to fascinate the rocks,","italic":"0"},{"line":"while sunlight pries apart your leaves","italic":"0"},{"line":"and flights of birds arouse the air \/ around you. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"and feel your heart accelerate \/ beneath it, rising to your lips. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"you could pick the whitest \/ petals from the holy orchard","italic":"0"},{"line":"\"Hey there, you little redheaded sweetiepie, you. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"You heard what he did next. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"You really must visit. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"Where are you from, anyway? ","italic":"0"},{"line":"No, I don't think so. But thank you. Thank you. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"What you call me, when you call \/ Me names, names me, as long as it's \/ Your calling, ","italic":"0"},{"line":"I copy \/ Lots of other folks, including \/ You.","italic":"0"},{"line":"You see their names could never \/ Be like ours, ","italic":"0"},{"line":"and I told you \/ About it, and you said, \"Who \/ Could like without it?\"","italic":"0"},{"line":"and now \/ As you see, I am still living with it, ","italic":"0"},{"line":"And if I don't \/ Live with you, I don't live without \/ You either, ever;","italic":"0"},{"line":"your \/ Ways: I can't forget, ","italic":"0"},{"line":"It's always nice to \/ Hear from you, even this way, \/ In my voice, with your \/ Infections. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"It's as though \/ You were still alive, or I \/ Were still sixteen, ","italic":"0"},{"line":"Wishing you were here, \/ I croon to myself: it's \/ Your tune; ","italic":"0"},{"line":"and so I fool my fool \/ Self into thinking you're around; ","italic":"0"},{"line":"I hear you talking. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"to hold your way \/ Of saying hi or laughing, in my \/ Mouth the quickest moment, ","italic":"0"},{"line":"You know how it must be for me. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"O, \/ You drunk and fucked-up munificence. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"Kindly lubricate my introduction to your unspeakable ring of chaos \/ You understand to be your life. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"You will surely pull the coil out my car. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"And if you listened, you could hear the mortar fire \/ walking up the valleys like an old blind man. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"Like a coda to the years you clawed death back, \/ You tried to die four days before you could--","italic":"0"},{"line":"Unsustaining, \/ Unsustained, your ravished heart sped on","italic":"0"},{"line":"In the moments after, each of us gazed at you \/ With a nearly unearthly hunger. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"As gently as \/ I could, I lay beside you, took your hand, \/ And let your warmth pass slowly into me. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"You could be eating, you could be driving around \/ and then you're screaming, ","italic":"0"},{"line":"I hate the phone, how it pretends to be \/ your friend, but I called you anyway, ","italic":"0"},{"line":"you ain't nobody to talk to so why trip because you died","italic":"0"},{"line":"you ain't no femme","italic":"0"},{"line":"you wasn't no frustrated straight girl","italic":"0"},{"line":"you was a natural ","italic":"0"},{"line":"i ain't lying just cause you dead","italic":"0"},{"line":"The fear you can't go back? ","italic":"0"},{"line":"your lover throws you over on your back ","italic":"0"},{"line":"You stand before a mirror, naked","italic":"0"},{"line":"the power of someone's eyes, words, erasing you, the all \/ you claim to be","italic":"0"},{"line":"the sexual need \/ you never knew","italic":"0"},{"line":"So you cry out at the idea of her, submissive,","italic":"0"},{"line":"yes, her hands your hands","italic":"0"},{"line":"yes, leading you back","italic":"0"},{"line":"her voice your voice","italic":"0"},{"line":" Later, you wipe off the remnants of the power \/ with Kleenex. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"When you get down to the sexual \/ level, ","italic":"0"},{"line":"you get sexually leveled, that's all:","italic":"0"},{"line":"You whisper no name but hers in the going back.","italic":"0"},{"line":"the ties that bind render you both submissive.","italic":"0"},{"line":"You'll need her to believe your plea,","italic":"0"},{"line":"she'll need you to escort her all the way back,","italic":"0"},{"line":"all you need is to be believed","italic":"0"},{"line":"you can see for yourself!","italic":"0"},{"line":"Where do you find this wine?","italic":"0"},{"line":"had you supposed?","italic":"0"},{"line":"So long as you employ corkscrews and not \/ Thumbscrews, I will unfold my heresies. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"You look askance?","italic":"0"},{"line":"Even among you","italic":"0"},{"line":"Please don't suppose I'm being holier than thou and thine.","italic":"0"},{"line":"You wouldn't know?","italic":"0"},{"line":"Yours is the vow I ought to take--Silence!","italic":"0"},{"line":"speak: it's you and me","italic":"0"},{"line":"When I'm ready, I'll tell you.","italic":"0"},{"line":"You think I jest:","italic":"0"},{"line":"and you could see","italic":"0"},{"line":"If you're Italian then you're in the mob. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"Can you suppose that like aggressiveness \/ Would not more suit the present circumstance ","italic":"0"},{"line":"You keep me virtually a prisoner:","italic":"0"},{"line":"And then you counsel me to fast and pray!","italic":"0"},{"line":"You think my case is scandalous?","italic":"0"},{"line":"Wait till the papers get on yours, my boys!","italic":"0"},{"line":"And if you'd like to hear the aria \/ Through to the end,","italic":"0"},{"line":"And you did, too:","italic":"0"},{"line":"I wonder if you might have saved the Pope, \/ If you'd been there in 1958?","italic":"0"},{"line":"Do you think those drug lords don't intend \/ To decorate their polity with priests? ","italic":"0"},{"line":"And I assure you, there'll be such a storm","italic":"0"},{"line":"Now, if you please, I'd like to use a phone. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"Would you agree?","italic":"0"},{"line":"Ah, I forget--you're sworn to abstinence.","italic":"0"},{"line":"My tongue should have been wise as yours.","italic":"0"},{"line":"May it provide the evidence \/ To hang the lot of you!","italic":"0"},{"line":"Cure me! You did before, you must again:","italic":"0"},{"line":"You deserve it. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"Thank you","italic":"0"},{"line":"And you can reach \/ Up to thirteen, in the jock-sweat fishing shack \/ Of Lester Manatu & Sons.","italic":"0"},{"line":"You rent \/ An outboard, fine, Manatu nods and doesn't \/ Bother to make you down; ","italic":"0"},{"line":"What do you \/ want, you, listening here with me now?","italic":"0"},{"line":"Inside the \/ monologue, \/ what would you insert? ","italic":"0"},{"line":"exactest gift \/ in which you say yourself, in which you say \/ only yourself--","italic":"0"},{"line":"To make it hear you. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"Another fisherman writes me: \"A man's death is his own; \/ you take Bill's death away, for public tears.\"","italic":"0"},{"line":"\"You'll eat pie in the sky by and by--when you die.\"","italic":"0"},{"line":"How funny your name would be \/ if you could follow it back to where \/ the first person thought of saying it, ","italic":"0"},{"line":"regal as you please,","italic":"1"},{"line":"Not the warmth of \/ Alabama midsummer \/ evenings, not your hand","italic":"0"},{"line":"When I put my hand to your face it becomes a caress,","italic":"0"},{"line":"You feel your face go rubber \/ as if your body were filling \/ with grief. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"Left-handedness \/ is a sinister business, but in \/ the major leagues, you want \/ a few of these wizards","italic":"0"},{"line":"Here's Pepper Martin \/ putting his spikes in your face,","italic":"0"},{"line":"You watch it watching you, ","italic":"0"},{"line":"and I know I have lost you. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"it is not chaos you see in my shop,","italic":"0"},{"line":"nothing \/ can do you any harm,","italic":"0"},{"line":"nothing is \/ so far along that you'll do harm to it....","italic":"0"},{"line":"whom you may know as well, ","italic":"0"},{"line":"A pity you cannot \/ confirm my boast;","italic":"0"},{"line":"a word to Pufendorf, \/ not so long since, would have afforded you \/ the sight of my magnum opus, ","italic":"0"},{"line":"this very Solyman you might have seen \/ for yourself in all his mortifying \/ splendor","italic":"0"},{"line":"Among them you can hear their half-choked cries \/ To be released,","italic":"0"},{"line":"despite your prayers, \/ Your listening and rejoicing, ","italic":"0"},{"line":"your small part \/ In this communal stab at coming clean, ","italic":"0"},{"line":"There is one stubborn remnant of your cares \/ Intact. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"There is still murder in your heart. ","italic":"0"},{"line":"She knows, as you and I do not, ","italic":"0"},{"line":"your last breath. ","italic":"0"}]